Join Susan as she obsesses about cosmetic chemistry and other things (some possibly related to monkeys). Often strange, occasionally useful, and always worth a stop as a point of interest on your journey through the Intertron.

Friday, January 30, 2015

Can we substitute one ingredient for another in a product? Lotion bars

If you're wondering if you can substitute one ingredient for another, check out first what the ingredients do in the product. What exactly does the ingredient do? Is it a surfactant, an emollient, a conditioning agent, an emulsifier, and so on? What does it bring to the product? What is its skin feel? Does it thin or thicken the product? Is it essential for the success of the product - for instance, is is the bubbly and lathery thing in a body wash or an emulsifier in a lotion - or is it a nice addition - for instance, a film former or humectant? Why exactly is the original ingredient in the recipe and what will substituting it for the one you have do to the end result?

Yep, it all comes back to knowing your ingredients! I know, I know, right? There's just no way to get around it! Learning about the ingredients you have - learning what they do, how they do it, what they feel like, and what they bring to the product - is the only way to get to the point where you can make substitutions or create your own recipes from scratch!

Let's say you want to substitute one oil for another in a lotion bar recipe.

If you wanted to use kukui nut oil instead, you might take a look at why the soy bean oil is in the recipe in the first place. A liquid oil is necessary in a lotion bar to keep it from being too hard. It will also contribute to the skin feel and greasiness level. Soy bean oil is a light and greasy feeling oil with a lot of Vitamin E and phytosterols. It will make the lotion bar feel medium to heavy greasiness. Kukui nut oil is a light and non-greasy feeling oil that has a very silky after feel with an unknown (to me) amount of Vitamin E and phytosterols. If I used this in the product, it means my product would feel less greasy and more silky. Can I substitute one for the other? Yes! We can almost always substitute one liquid oil for another liquid oil in our products!

The exception? If you're working with castor oil and beeswax together, there is a neat effect they have when they are together in something like a mock Vaseline or lipstick. The beeswax becomes more plastic when combined with castor oil. Don't make changes in these two products!

Let's say you want to substitute the mango butter for another hard butter, like coconut oil. Could we? What does the mango butter bring to the product? It has a high melting point, which means the product will stay solid, and it offers a dry, powdery feeling instead of a greasy one. Coconut oil has a low melting point, which means the product won't be solid any more when it reaches 24˚C or 76˚F, and it has a greasy skin feel. Can we substitute the coconut oil for the mango butter?

No. The mango butter has an important role here, to keep the bar more solid, so we can't substitute something that might melt at slightly above room temperature for it.

Could we substitute another high melting point butter for the mango butter? Yes! We could use cocoa, shea, kokum, and so on for it because they will maintain the shape of the lotion bar.

What about substituting one wax for another? Beeswax is a plasticizer and hardener, helping the bar keep its shape and stiffness. Could we use something like carnauba or candellia wax? Yes, but we would have to modify the amount we use as these other waxes make lotion bars much much harder. In general, we divide the amount of beeswax in half for the wax, then make up the rest with the butter and liquid oil. So we might use 16% candellia wax and 40% oil, 39% butter instead of 1/3 of each.

When we alter something, we will change the skin feel. Your bar with candellia wax, kukui nut oil, and shea butter will not feel even remotely like my bar with mango butter, beeswax, and soy bean oil, but we aren't altering the chemistry of anything when we make these substitutions. When we're making anhydrous products, changing the ingredients is about changing the viscosity, skin feel, stiffness, and so on, changes in physical sensations. When we make changes in things like lotions, we could be changing the chemistry of the product, so we have to give it a little more thought.*

5 comments:

As I mention in the post above, to know if you can subtitute something, you have to know the ingredients. In what product are you substituting one for the other? What does the beeswax do in the recipe? What does cetyl alcohol do in a recipe? What would it do in this recipe? What does BTMS do in a recipe? What will it do in this recipe? If you can answer those questions, then you'll know you have a substitution possibility.

This looks like it might make the start of a deodorant bar--with zinc oxide added, maybe some cyclomethicone for glide (Haven't figured that part out yet) and some deodorant additive (bramble berry carries this product and I think it is probably a necessary addition to really make a deodorant work.) I don't think mango would be good--might stain. Perhaps cocoa butter and less beeswax. Oh, the possibilities!

Welcome to the blog!

Meet our new mascot!

Welcome to the blog!

Thanks for stopping by Point of Interest! Pull up a chair, grab your favourite hot beverage, and hang out for a bit. Feel free to add your comments to posts of any age to share your thoughts! It's no fun writing this blog if I don't get to hear from you, my amazing readers!

Have a question that hasn't been asked before? Feel free to write to me at sjbarclay@telus.net and ask away! Please note, I encourage you to do the tour of the blog first and check the newbie section and FAQ first. Then maybe do a search? If you're asking for help with a recipe, I need the complete recipe in percentages and your exact process. I can't help without these, and I won't be able to do a back-and-forth with you to get the information.

As for comments, please find a relevant post and write your comment there. There's no point asking for help with your lotion bar on a post about conditioners as no one will see it but you. Please find something that relates by doing a search or looking at sections like hair care, newbie links, or extracts, for example, post your comments there. It'll make it easier for other people to help you if I can't find time, too. If you post something that is very clearly not related to the post in which you're asking for help, it will go unanswered by me.

I'm not allowing anonymous comments for the time being thanks to some particularly relentless spammers. I am also moderating any comments on posts over 2 weeks old.

There are no old posts! Write your comments anywhere and I will see them, although they will be moderated before posting due to the aforementioned spammers.

Unfortunately I'm not able to offer business consultations at this time as I'm simply too busy. Thank you so much for thinking of me when you need assistance with your formulations. (I may be able to offer this in the future.)

As a note, I am not affiliated with any suppliers or manufacturers of any craft supplies of any type. If I rave about something, it's because I love the ingredient, fabric, beads, etc. not because I've been paid to say something nice! I do get free things from time to time from manufacturers and suppliers, but I make them aware that I will be brutally honest about those ingredients on the blog!

My Patreon page

If you like what I'm offering here on the blog, check out my Patreon page where you can offer a small donation or create a monthly subscription to get even more stuff from the blog, like a monthly e-zine, Q&A, and duplication recipe. The money you donate to me - not the youth programs - will go to creating more content for this blog, creating new e-books and an e-zine, and - we hope - some video content in the future.

Follow SwiftCraftyMonkey on Facebook!

Join me on my Facebook page for updates, random thoughts, and links to other things I think might be interesting!

My e-books

To raise money for our youth groups, I've put together these e-books! If you want to learn more about the books or donate, click on the bolded links!Or click here for a short description of all the e-books!The new e-book is here! Formulating Facial Products! This 399 page e-book is filled with recipes for facial products, including moisturizers, sera, cleansers (oil and surfactant based), scrubs, gels, and more, as well as entries for ingredients like botanical extracts, cosmeceuticals, emulsifiers, thickeners, essential oil, and more, as well as a large appendix about our oils.

Click here to see the table of contents! If you make a $28 donation to our youth programs, we'll send you a copy of this e-book along with the preservatives, oils, butters, and surfactant charts as a thank you for your kind generosity!

Formulating & Creating Lotions! This 224 page e-book is perfect for those of you familiar with lotion making and ready to start creating your own recipes! I've included all the information I know about the HLB system, as well as my base recipes for lotions, creams, body butters, and moisturizers!

Click here to see the table of contents! If you make a $26 donation to my youth programs, I'll send you a copy of this e-book, an HLB calculator in Excel format, and the carrier oil, exotic oil, butter, and preservative comparison charts.

Lotion Making 101. This 305 page book includes everything you wanted to know about the basics of making lotions, including the chemistry of our lotions, ingredients we use, keeping your lotions safe, equipment you might need, and more recipes than I could count! For those of you who don't have the Back to Basics book, I've included all the carrier oil, exotic oil, and butter profiles.

Click here to see the table of contents. If you make a $29 donation to my youth groups, I'll send you along a copy of this e-book as a thank you. I'll also send you a copy of the carrier oil, exotic oil, butter, and preservative comparison charts!

Back to Basics: Anhydrous Products. This 122 page e-book includes over 50 recipes and explanations for making lotion bars, whipped butters, balms, oil based scrubs, bath melts, bath oils, oil based sprays, solid scrubs, and facial sera, as well as all the carrier oil, exotic oil, and butter profiles and everything I've gathered about the chemistry of our oils including fatty acids, mechanisms of rancidity, phytosterols, and polyphenols.

Click to take peek at the Table of Contents. If you make a $25 donation to the groups, I'll send you a copy by e-mail as a thank you!

Click on the links above to learn more about the books. If you already know what you want or want to make a general donation, click the button below! (I'll know which e-book you want by the amount you've donated!) Thank you so much for supporting our youth groups. You have made it possible for us to continue offering our programs and we finally got that sewing machine!

I've had to remove my cell phone number due to a number of calls from people wanting to learn how to make lotion. If you are part of the groups or want more information, please email me or call Community Services at 604 792-4267 to get connected.

Who the heck is Swift?

I'm an aspiring cosmetic scientician and DIY girl interested in pretty much any craft you can name - bookbinding, jewellery making, sewing, paper crafts, polymer clay - but my main passion is bath & body product making.
I am currently obsessed with Rock Band (bass and singing) and science books. Did you know my favourite word is "toaster" and my favourite adjective is "hirsute"?